Spurred by the rise of the Internet in the 1990s, use of the personal computer (PC) has shifted from primarily being used by workers in offices to also being used by consumers for entertainment, information gathering and leisure activities. The large majority of both businesses and households now utilize one or more computers. Computer use has entered into the realm of the general population, which is comprised of people of all ages, interests, backgrounds and levels of technical skill.
Any solution based on extensible computing platforms has many parts, both hardware and software. Overall user experience is determined by the quality of each component and how well the components work together. If a component is causing a problem, most users today do not have the technological savvy, inclination or time to know which component is causing the problem. If the user is able to identify a component having an issue, the user may not know whether there is a better alternative available. Users also do not know what new components will work well with components they already have.
Inevitably, some problem components will be passed along to users, or components will develop issues during user use. When a problem arises, the user many times does not have the requisite technical sophistication to determine which component is having the issue and the options available for resolving it.